Statistical dynamics of driven systems of confined interacting particles in the overdamped-motion regime

• Published in: Chaos (Woodbury, N.Y.) N.Y.), 2022-11, Vol.32 (11), p.113134-113134
• Main Authors: Curilef, S., Plastino, A. R., Wedemann, R. S.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Fokker-Planck equation; Free energy; Lower bounds; Mathematical analysis; Superconductors; System effectiveness; Time dependence
• ISSN: 1054-1500; 1089-7682
• DOI: 10.1063/5.0104907

Systems consisting of confined, interacting particles doing overdamped motion admit an effective description in terms of nonlinear Fokker–Planck equations. The behavior of these systems is closely related to the S q power-law entropies and can be interpreted in terms of the S q-based thermostatistics. The connection between overdamped systems and the S q measures provides valuable insights on diverse physical problems, such as the dynamics of interacting vortices in type-II superconductors. The S q-thermostatistical approach to the study of many-body systems described by nonlinear Fokker–Planck equations has been intensively explored in recent years, but most of these efforts were restricted to systems affected by time-independent external potentials. Here, we extend this treatment to systems evolving under time-dependent external forces. We establish a lower bound on the work done by these forces when they drive the system during a transformation. The bound is expressed in terms of a free energy based on the S q entropy and is satisfied even if the driving forces are not derivable from a potential function. It constitutes a generalization, for systems governed by nonlinear Fokker–Planck equations involving general time-dependent external forces, of the H-theorem satisfied by these systems when the external forces arise from a time-independent potential.